Procedure and House Affairs committee  We did have information that was made available simply to look at our planning assumptions, but there was no consultation in terms of whether this was a good or bad proposition. That is perfectly normal in the course of these kinds of legislation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The only one I know of that I can compare it to is the Ontario provincial regime. I understand that the committee may be hearing from Mr. Essensa. The Ontario regime is much stricter. Whether or not that's a desirable thing I think is for the committee to consider. In the Ontari

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not that I'm aware of. We have one of the strictest regimes internationally in terms of contributions and spending. This is a very restrictive regime. When you travel and you speak to other jurisdictions, or when they come to visit, they're always surprised at the extent of the r

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, it's certainly captured in terms of the notice. I think, after the fact, if the event is cancelled, effectively—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, it's no longer a regulated event within the meaning of the bill, so my instinctive reaction—and I'd have to look at it carefully—is that, if it doesn't meet any of the conditions, no matter what the notice said, then there would not be a requirement to report. Of course, al

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. If there is a fundraiser that meets the three conditions, then it would be captured if it's organized for the benefit of an affiliated political entity, and a leadership contestant is one of them. It would be caught by the proposed rules, on the assumption that this

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not that I can foresee, no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's an interesting hypothetical. I think the spirit of that legislation—and, again, I would examine the words carefully—is that it would not be captured even though technically the words “leadership contestant” are not restricted to the leader of the party hosting the event.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think members of the committee have a better sense than I do in terms of the practical realities of these conventions and the fluidity of attendance. I note that the act contemplates that, if there's a ticketed fundraiser within a convention that it has captured, it meets those

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it only becomes captured if it's a prior condition for attending. If one is required to pay over $200, then everything is captured. If people happen to be there who have made contributions, but were not required to do so, then it is not captured.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I'm quite happy to do that. I have Madam Lawson here to assist as well. I know that there is perhaps more time. If the committee wants to go through each of these one by one, then we can do that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The first is one that I mentioned in my introduction. It's a prior notice to Elections Canada. We don't look on websites every day to see if notices come up. If we received a report 30 days later, we'd have to go back in time and verify whether there was proper notice. We also wo

Procedure and House Affairs committee  These are good points. I would differentiate the two. I think the first one is perhaps more properly aligned with the spirit of this bill. I think if it were to be amended to make sure that if there's no announcement of a minister or key decision-maker or a leader of a party, the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's the reverse scenario. It's not a factual problem, I think it's a drafting problem. If you look at proposed section 476.02, it's for a nomination contest. It's mirrored in the leadership contest definition. The definition proposes that it capture, and I'll only read excerpts,

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not quite. What I'm getting at is that the definition captures all kinds of expenditures that have nothing to do with either a leadership contest or a nomination contest, which we're not intending to capture. We would not read it that way. The definition was just borrowed from